


In Your Dreams

by Mina Lightstar (ukefied)



Category: Gintama
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 19:57:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1720715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ukefied/pseuds/Mina%20Lightstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The evidence is all circumstantial, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Your Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written many, many years ago.

The first thing Hijikata Toshirou notices when he wakes up is that he has a very bad headache. The second thing he notices is that his arms hurt from being bent above his head. This is when he notices that his wrists are securely tied to the headboard with a pair of handcuffs.  
  
This is when he chokes on his own tongue.  
  
" _Sougo,_ " he snarls, as viciously as he can manage with a liquor-slurred voice -- because this is obviously, somehow, all Okita's doing. But no, wait. He squints at the ceiling, recognizably not his own, and frowns. This isn't Okita's house, either -- or any residence of a fellow officer, for that matter. Where is he?  
  
"Sougo," he manages to croak, struggling to lift his head, "if you're in here, I am going to kill you." Moving makes his head throb, so he decides to wait until he's a little more sober. Instead, he tries moving his legs, to see if they're bound, as well.  
  
This is when he discovers he's naked.  
  
 _Someone is going to die,_  Toushirou decides, and it is not going to be him. He sifts through the memories in his muddled brain, trying to remember where he was last night, what happened, why was he drunk, who the hell  _dared_  cuff him to a headboard?  
  
He gropes around with his foot, searching -- for what, he doesn't know, but he finds a shoulder and  _that_  does it.  
  
Hijikata Toshirou ignores the headache and lifts his head as high as he can to glance down the length of his body. At the foot of the bed, sprawled lengthwise and looking rather undignified, is the freelancer Sakata Gintoki, clad in nothing but his natural talent.  
  
And,  _Oh,_  Toshirou realizes. Oh. This is rather... unexpected. And humiliating. And why is  _he_  the one tied up, anyway?  
  
"Yo," he snaps, poking Gintoki with his big toe. The freelancer doesn't budge. " _Hey,_ " he tries again, stretching to poke Gintoki in the cheek.  
  
The sudden electronic whine makes Toshirou freeze, stunned, thinking he has somehow set off some alarm on Gintoki.  
  
Then he realizes, "Love hotel?!"  
  
The noise continues, and it works its way into Toshirou's brain to make his headache worse -- but it also rouses Gintoki, so he is thankful for that, at least.  
  
"Hey, you!" the freelancer snaps, making no effort to rise and pointing vaguely in the direction of the beeping. "Can't you see some people are trying to sleep?"  
  
"Gintoki!" Toshirou snaps, kicking him in the face -- admittedly with more force than necessary.  
  
When Gintoki picks himself up off the floor, he looks puzzled. He glances at Toshirou, his own state of undress, and then around the room, like the furniture holds the answer for him.  
  
"Don't just stand there!" Toshirou barks over the loud alarm.  
  
"Got it, got it," Gintoki says, as lazily as he does anything, and turns around, looking at the floor. Finding whatever he searching for, he bends over.  
  
This gives Toshirou an image -- just an image,  _not_  a flashback.  _Not._  Thankfully, he doesn't have to stare at Gintoki's ass for long. When he stands, though, he's fishing through the pockets of Toshirou's pants. He produces Hijikata's wallet and takes a few coins.  
  
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Toshirou demands, struggling against the handcuffs. They are unyielding, but wood is wood.  
  
He's sure he's going to rip the headboard right off when Gintoki says, "Don't be so excitable," as he heads for the door. And before Toshirou can demand where he is going --  _Tied up and robbed, Sougo will never let me live this down, there will be newspaper articles_  -- Gintoki walks to the wailing timer and puts some more money in. The machine quiets.  
  
"... Did you just buy us more time?" Toshirou demands.  
  
"What, you wanted to listen to that racket?" Gintoki drags his feet back to the bed and stares at Toshirou for so long, Hijikata begins to wonder if the other has fallen asleep again. Finally, the freelancer scratches his head, sighs, and says, "I wish strange people would stop showing up in my bed."  
  
"You're the one who's strange," Toshirou retorts. "What are  _you_  doing in  _my_  bed?"  
  
"This isn't your bed," Gintoki points out, bending down again to search through the clothes on the floor. "It belongs to the hotel."  
  
 _"The one in the ronin district is dirt cheap!"_  
  
Hijikata shakes Sougo's voice out of his head. Where had  _that_  come from?  
  
"Anyway, what the hell were you thinking, handcuffing yourself to the headboard? Idiot."  
  
Toshirou twitches. How could he have possibly done this to himself?!  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Trying to find my pants."  
  
The image of Gintoki finally shedding comes unbidden to his mind. That, and Toshirou's own taunt,  _"Is that all you've got?"_  He pushes both far, far away.  
  
"Forget your goddamned pants and  _untie me, you stupid freelancer._ "  
  
Gintoki stands up again, one hand on his hip, the other putting him on the spot. "You know, in this world, there are samurai who will never know the indignity if being handcuffed to a headboard--"  
  
"Just shut up and find the key to these things." Hijikata shut his eyes tightly, because he is seeing way too much of Gintoki.  
  
With a grunt, Gintoki goes looking. Toshirou stares at the ceiling, thinking,  _Why me?_  and listening to the freelancer's moody mutterings about bossy Shinsengumi elites and how they were better left tied to headboards.  
  
Toshirou then wonders why Gintoki is even bothering. Such an embarrassing situation, and they aren't  _exactly_  friends... why not just leave him here?  
  
Then he remembers sharing too much drink, and lowered inhibitions, and  _"I always wondered..."_  and he swears there had been back-flips in it somewhere....  
  
 _... Did I let Sakata Gintoki fuck me?_  
  
"Found it!" Gintoki proclaims, popping up with the small key-ring. "Inside your jacket," he adds, sticking a finger in his nose as he studies the keys.  
  
 _... Please tell me I didn't._  
  
Of course, Gintoki has to go through every key on the ring before finding the right one. All the while, Toshirou grits his teeth and tries to ignore the freelancer's nether regions. As soon as he's free, Hijikata springs from the bed and starts looking for his uniform. His head hurts from moving so violently, but his pride hurts more. He doesn't  _feel_  different, but he's never had sex with another man before, so what does he know about the mornings after? Besides, the love hotel, their clothes strewn about the room, all the drinking... how else could their evening have  _possibly_  ended?  
  
"Hey," Gintoki interrupts his thoughts, "what's wrong with you?" He's putting on his own clothes.  
  
Hijikata glowers at him. "This doesn't unnerve you?" It occurs to him that people might see Vice-Captain Hijikata Toshirou exiting a love hotel with Sakata Gintoki, and he decides the only way this can get worse is if Sougo were to show up and snap pictures.  
  
Then he realizes that is a definite possibility: Sougo  _told them_  where this hotel was.  
  
"Why?" Gintoki wonders languidly. "It's obvious what happened."  
  
"It doesn't bother you?"  
  
"Nah. I'm used to being poor." Gintoki continues with closed eyes, so he doesn't see Hijikata gape at him. "Usually, when I get so drunk I can't even stumble home, I crash in a love hotel. They're cheap, and nobody bothers you." Oblivious to Toshirou's incredulous stare, Gintoki continues, "And it was so hot last night, of course I wasn't sleeping in my clothes." He yawns. "I'm still tired, and my head still hurts. I'm going home. See you, thanks for the sake," he adds with a wave.  
  
He pauses in the doorway, looking over his shoulder at the sputtering Toshirou. "What?" he asks. "Did you think we had sex, or something?"  
  
Toshirou remembers stumbling out of the bar -- they were  _so_  drunk, weren't going to remember  _anything_  -- and there was Sougo -- evil, evil Sougo with spare change and hotel recommendations -- and it  _was_  hot and stuffy, and why do they always get drunk and stupid together?  
  
And he remembers a kiss that was more like a fight, and Gintoki saying he doesn't take orders, and  _Oh, damn it._  
  
"No," Toshirou says. "No, we didn't."  
  
  
+end?+


End file.
